Something's Fishy Here!

We wanted to get Little Man a fish.  Simple, right?  Alas, not so!  We thought we'd surprise him by coming home from a shopping trip with the fish in hand (or actually, in bag).  But, they wouldn't sell us the fish and the tank at the same time; we had to take the tank home, set it up with the filter and a heater, and leave it for a week before they would sell us a fish.

Fast forward to one week later, this past Saturday.  We made a big deal of taking Little Man to the pet shop, with his friend Masha, so that he could pick out his first pet for himself.  He looked carefully through over 30 species of fish--tropical, marine, coldwater--before finally choosing the most beautiful, midnight blue Beta (Japanese fighting fish) I have ever seen.  On the way home from the pet store, he chose the name 'Dash', which I thought was pretty groovy.

We followed the instructions to the letter for introducing him into his new tank environment.  Fifteen minutes of his bag floating in the tank, then 15 minutes with a little tank water mixed into the bag, then finally free from the bag and off to explore the plastic foliage.  He seemed to be swimming awfully hard, and kept drifting toward one corner of the tank, where the filter is.  A while later, after the novelty had worn off and we were paying attention to other things, Big Man looked over and discovered he was stuck to the filter!!  Horrors!  One swift rescue later, we told Little Man that Dash would need to rest overnight.  He didn't have any visible injuries, but four hours later, he was resting permanently.

Little Man was unperturbed.  He wanted to know what colour the new one would be.  Fish #2 was a brighter blue Beta, named Samuel.  He came home last night.  Same careful routine.  Filter speed set to lowest setting!  No run-ins with the filter this time, but mysteriously, dead by Noon today.

This evening, the third Beta is exploring the tank.  We had the water tested at the pet shop; apparently our water is 'perfect', so that's not the problem!  This one is a lovely red colour.  It doesn't have a name yet; maybe we'll wait to christen it until it's survived for 24 hours.

So much energy for the sake of such a wee little boy!  Reminds me of this morning's gospel lesson from Luke 12: "So don't be afraid, little flock.  For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom" (NLT).